[Comp-neuro] FYI RIKEN Brain Science Institute Summer School 2012

Dear colleagues,

I forward the information of RIKEN Brain Science Institute 2012 Summer Program.

- Hiro Nakahara

Call for Applications

RIKEN Brain Science Institute 2012 Summer Program
URL: http://www.brain.riken.go.jp/en/summer/index.html
Schedule: http://www.brain.riken.go.jp/en/summer/schedule.html
Application form: http://www.brain.riken.go.jp/en/summer/applying.html

Application deadline; Feb 29th, 2012, 17:20p.m. (JST)
Internship: June 13 - August 8
Lecture Course: July 3 - July 9

Every summer, RIKEN Brain Science Institute (Wako, Japan; nearby Tokyo)
organizes the international summer school. The short summary of the
summer school this year is attached below. Application guideline,
further information of the coming and past summer schools and etc are
on the above URL.

The RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN BSI), located just outside
Tokyo, Japan, offers a summer program to train advanced students
interested in brain function. Applicants may choose either a two-month
laboratory internship (Plan A) within a RIKEN BSI laboratory, or an
intensive 7-day lecture course (Plan B) featuring a distinguished
international faculty. Those participating in the internship may also
enroll in the lecture course.

For questions, please send any general inquiry not to me but to the
adminstration or organizing committee of the summer school shown in the
above summer school, while you can send me an inquiry at
itninfo@brain.riken.jp,if it is specifically about my laboratory (lab
URL: http://www.itn.brain.riken.jp)

For Plan A (internship), you can check host laboratory at
http://www.brain.riken.go.jp/en/summer/host.html.

For Plan B (lecture course), here I append the information:

"The Collective Brain: How does the dynamics of collective interaction of neurons make our mind work?"

In this course, we would like to place our emphasis on the interaction or coordination of different components of the brain that allows it to function as an integrated system for controlling cognition, memory and behavior. Our emphasis is also on how the malfunctioning of these mechanisms might lead to abnormal states of the brain.

Invited Lecturers (tentative)
Francesco Battaglia, University of Amsterdam
Joshua Berke, University of Michigan
Laura Colgin, University of Texas at Austin
Gustavo Deco ,Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Howard Eichenbaum, Boston University
Joshua Gordon, Columbia University
Gilles Laurent, The Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Shigetada Nakanishi, Osaka Bioscience Institute
Paul Phillips, University of Washington
Geoffrey Schoenbaum, University of Maryland
Erin Schuman, The Max Planck Institute for Brain Research
Jeff Wickens, OIST
Matthew Wilson, MIT

---------------------------------
Hiro Nakahara
Lab for Integrated Theoretical Neuroscience
RIKEN Brain Science Institute
2-1 Hirosawa Wako
Saitama, 351-0198, Japan
Email: hn@brain.riken.jp
Lab webpage: http://www.itn.brain.riken.jp/

--
hiroyuki nakahara
http://www.itn.brain.riken.jp

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[Comp-neuro] 3 PostDocs, Switzerland, EPFL

Dear all,

3 Postdoc positions are available
in the Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience
at the EPFL. Duration is typically 2 years, up to 4 years max.
http://lcn1.epfl.ch/

The PostDocs will be hosted in the research group of
Wulfram Gerstner. Typically PostDocs in the Laboratory
of Computational Neuroscience are rather independent,
with their own research project which should
of course have a  relation to the topics studied in the lab.
The lab has been involved in the past in models of STDP,
reward-based plasticity, or coding with spiking neurons, amongst others
Some representative publications are listed below.

PostDocs are expected to have an extremely strong theory background
(theoretical physcis, math, or similar) and, ideally, should have worked
in the field of theoretical or computational neuroscience.

If you are interested, send an application
(CV, motivation letter, publication list, research project,
and three names for  reference) as pdf documents per email to
Chantal.Mellier@epfl.ch
We start to look at applications after Feb 1st 2012, but later applications are possible.
Starting date negotiable.

The laboratory is located at the EPFL in Lausanne, on the shores
of the lake of Geneva in Switzerland. The EPFL
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne is a top ranked
University in Europe.

best regards
Wulfram Gerstner

some represenative publications

Inhibitory Plasticity Balances Excitation and Inhibition in Sensory Pathways and Memory Networks, T. Vogels, H. Sprekeler, F. Zenke, C. Clopath and W. Gerstner, Science 334: 1569-1573, 2011

Connectivity reflects coding: a model of voltage-based STDP with homeostasis, C. Clopath, L. Busing, E. Vasilaki and W. Gerstner, Nature Neuroscience, 13: 344-352, 2010

Generalized Bienenstock-Cooper-Munro rule for spiking neurons that maximizes information transmission , T. Toyoizumi, J.-P. Pfister, K. Aihara, and W. Gerstner , Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 102:5239-5244 (2005)

Spiking Neuron Models - Single Neurons, Populations, Plasticity, Wulfram Gerstner and Werner Kistler, Cambridge University Press (2002)

Functional Requirements for Reward-Modulated Spike-Timing-Dependent Plasticity, N. Fremaux, H. Sprekeler and W. Gerstner, Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 30, Nr. 40, pp. 13326-13337, 2010.

--  Wulfram Gerstner         Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience Professor                Brain Mind Institute  EPFL                     Computer&Communication Sciences http://lcn.epfl.ch/      Station 15 +41-21 693 6713          1015 Lausanne EPFL

[Comp-neuro] 2012 Undergraduate Summer Program in Computational Neuroscience at UPenn

2012 Summer Program in Computational Neuroscience
at the University of Pennsylvania
June 11 - August 24, 2012

Applications now available online at:
http://www.ircs.upenn.edu/compneuro/summer/

Application deadline is March 1, 2012!

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Program Description:

Applications are invited for an intensive hands-on summer program to
introduce undergraduate students to the principles and techniques of
computational neuroscience. The summer program will be directed by Dr.
Vijay Balasubramanian of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Joshua
Jacobs of Drexel University, in collaboration with Neuroscience faculty
from Penn and allied institutions.

An initial short course will introduce students to the basic methods of
using computational techniques to model and analyze neuronal activity.
After the course, students will conduct laboratory research under
faculty supervision. Lectures and chalk talks will continue throughout
the summer during the Summer Seminar Series, and participants present
their research at a Symposium at the close of the program. The goal of
the program is to foster training that integrates experimental and
theoretical approaches to understanding neural function.

All undergraduates with an interest in Computational Neuroscience are
encouraged to apply. Students seeking an introduction to more
quantitative approaches and greater exposure to Neuroscience are
encouraged to apply, regardless of background. All currently enrolled
undergraduate students are eligible for our Summer Program, including
currently enrolled seniors and international students. *Note: if
admitted, international students will be required to obtain the J1 visa
in order to participate in our paid program.

Housing is available, if needed, on the Penn campus. A $4,000 stipend
will be provided to all participants for living expenses, including housing.

Please see our website for program information, including application
instructions and a link to the application:

http://www.ircs.upenn.edu/compneuro/summer/

The application deadline is March 1, 2012; admission is on a rolling
basis.

Questions? Contact us at: compneurosci@psych.upenn.edu
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[Comp-neuro] COSYNE 2012: early registration and discount hotel deadlines fast approaching

=================================================================

Computational and Systems Neuroscience (Cosyne)

MAIN MEETING WORKSHOPS
Feb 23 - 26, 2012 Feb 27 - 28, 2012
Salt Lake City, Utah Snowbird Ski Resort, Utah

http://www.cosyne.org

=================================================================

REGISTRATION AND HOTELS:

Online registration is currently open.
Hotel booking is currently open.

Early registration deadline:
Feb 1, 2012

Deadline for discounted hotel rates (main meeting, Salt Lake City):
Feb 1, 2012

Extended deadline for discounted hotel rates (workshops, Snowbird):
Jan 26, 2012

For more detailed information, please visit www.cosyne.org

INVITED SPEAKERS:

John Assad
Michael Brecht
Emery Brown
Nicolas Brunel
Stefano Fusi
Tom Griffiths
Takao Hensch
Zach Mainen
Fred Rieke
Rebecca Saxe
Noam Sobel
Sarah Woolley

THE MEETING:

The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange
of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems
neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function.

The MAIN MEETING is single-track. A set of invited talks are selected by
the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected
by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS
feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest, in a small
group setting.

Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural coding, natural
scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent
activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and
sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map
formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, and computation
with spiking networks.

WORKSHOP TITLES:

Coding and computation in visual short-term memory.
Perception and decision making in rodents (two day workshop).
Neuromodulation: beyond the wiring diagram, adding functional
flexibility to neural circuits.
Is it time for theory in olfaction? (two day workshop).
Understanding heterogeneous cortical activity: the quest for
structure and randomness.
Humans, neurons, and machines: how can psychophysics, physiology,
and modeling collaborate to ask better questions in biological vision?
Inhibitory synaptic plasticity.
Neurophysiological and computational mechanisms of categorization.
Sensorimotor processes reflected in spatiotemporal patterns of
neuronal activity.
Functions of identified cortical microcircuits.
Characterizing neural responses to structured and naturalistic stimuli.
Promise and peril: genetic approaches for systems neuroscience
revisited.

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
General Chairs: Rachel Wilson (Harvard) and Jim DiCarlo (MIT)
Program Chairs: Nicole Rust (Penn) and Jonathan Pillow (UT Austin)
Workshop Chairs: Brent Doiron (Pittsburgh) and Jess Cardin (Yale)
Publicity Chair: Mark Histed (Harvard Medical School)

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE:
Anthony Zador (CSHL)
Alexandre Pouget (U Rochester)
Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme)
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[Comp-neuro] Connectionists: Biological Cybernetics: vol 105, issue 3-4 --- Table of Content

Biological Cybernetics: vol 105, issue 3-4 --- Table of Content
http://www.springerlink.com/content/u80286705w24/

Original papers:

"Application of modern tests for stationarity to single-trial MEG data"
Lech Kipinski, Reinhard König, Cezary Sieluzycki & Wojciech Kordecki
http://www.springerlink.com/content/42m110q86545g5l7/

"Experimental analysis and computational modeling of interburst
intervals in spontaneous activity of cortical neuronal culture"
T. Gritsun, J. le Feber, J. Stegenga & W. L. C. Rutten
http://www.springerlink.com/content/n874442183v11vgr/

"A method to investigate the diffusion properties of nuclear calcium"
Gillian Queisser & Gabriel Wittum
http://www.springerlink.com/content/t4j7w93631721575/

"Dynamical estimation of neuron and network properties I: variational
methods"
Bryan A. Toth, Mark Kostuk, C. Daniel Meliza, Daniel Margoliash & Henry
D. I. Abarbanel
http://www.springerlink.com/content/d027843w8w252436/

"An optical flow-based integrated navigation system inspired by insect
vision"
Chao Pan, He Deng, Xiao Fang Yin & Jian Guo Liu
http://www.springerlink.com/content/l16mp86021027848/

"The mechanisms for compression and reflection of cortical waves"
Julie Goulet & G. Bard Ermentrout
http://www.springerlink.com/content/618l04h0618x1t5p/

"Robust control of CPG-based 3D neuromusculoskeletal walking model"
Youngwoo Kim, Yusuke Tagawa, Goro Obinata & Kazunori Hase
http://www.springerlink.com/content/731606j743234371/

Erratum:
"Erratum to: Revealing non-analytic kinematic shifts in smooth
goal-directed behaviour"
M. K. Weir & A. P. Wal
http://www.springerlink.com/content/x824w746h2575766/

Erratum:
"Erratum to: Intrinsic variability of latency to first-spike"
Gilles Wainrib, Michèle Thieullen & Khashayar Pakdaman
http://www.springerlink.com/content/u87m5229rq117822/

----
Biological Cybernetics, all issues:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/100465/

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[Comp-neuro] Call for projects proposals eNTERFACE'12

The 8th International Workshop on Multimodal Interfaces; July 2nd - July 27th, 2012; Supélec (Metz, France) 

 

Reminder : Project submission deadline January 28th, 2012

After the previous workshops, held in Mons (Belgium), Dubrovnik (Croatia), Istanbul (Turkey), Paris (France), Genova (Switzerland), Amsterdam (The Netherlands) and Plzen (Czech Republic) which had an impressive success record and had proven the viability and usefulness of this original workshop, the 8th edition will take place in Supélec (Metz, France). eNTERFACE workshops aims at establishing a tradition of collaborative, localized research and development work by gathering, in a single place, a team of senior project leaders in multimodal interfaces,  researchers, and (undergraduate) students, to work on a pre-specified list of challenges, for 4 weeks. Participants are organized in teams, attached to specific projects, working on free software. Each week will typically consist of working sessions by the teams on their respective projects plus a tutorial given by an invited senior researcher and a presentation of the results achieved by each project group. The last week will be devoted to writing an article on the results obtained by the teams plus a big session where all the groups will present their achievements. 

 

This year, participants will be provided with an especially great technical infrastructure, the SmartRoom. In addition to basic network infrastructure and internet access, robots (Nao, Parrot drone, Koala, Rovio and Bioloid), multimedia devices (2d and 3d cameras, Kinect, array of microphones and even an holophonic room) and sensors (brain computer interfaces, eyetrackers and some biomedical sensors) will be available for the projects. For more details, see the website.

 

The eNTERFACE'12 committee now invites researchers to submit project proposals that will be evaluated by the scientific committee. All the informations asked to submit a project are available on the website of the workshop (http://enterface12.metz.supelec.fr). The proposals should contain a full description of the project's objectives, required hardwares/softwares and relevant literatures. When submitting a project proposal, a list of potential candidates can be proposed by the authors. Although not exhaustive, the submitted projects can cover one or several of the topics listed below. A special focus is made this year on human-robot and human-environment interaction. 

 

Topics : 

 

- Embodied agents 

- Human-robot and human-environments interactions in smart environments 

- Multimodal signal analysis and synthesis 

- Signal-level and meaning-level data fusion 

- Multimodal conversational systems 

- Intuitive interfaces and personalized systems in real and virtual environments 

- User, context and semantics aware self-learning and adapting systems 

- Innovative modalities and modalities conversion 

- Applications of Multimodal Interfaces 

 

Important dates : 

* December 17th, 2011    Reception of a 1 page Notification of Interest, with a summary of project goals, work-packages, and deliverables 

* January 28th, 2012    Reception of the complete project proposal in the format provided in the guidelines 

* February 18th, 2012    Notification of project acceptance, publication of the Call for Participation 

* April 1st, 2012    Closing of the Call for Participation 

* April 15th, 2012    Publication of the teams 

* July 2nd - July 27th, 2012    eNTERFACE'12 Workshop 

Website of the workshop : http://enterface12.metz.supelec.fr 

Send correspondence to : enterface12@supelec.fr 

The organizing committee of eNTERFACE'12 is looking forward for your submissions.

[Comp-neuro] 2nd BIENNIAL UK NEUROINFORMATICS NODE CONGRESS

Dear Colleagues,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2nd BIENNIAL UK NEUROINFORMATICS NODE CONGRESS
http://www.neuroinformatics.org.uk/events-and-projects/22-2ndcongress

The UK Node is holding its biennial conference at the Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh, from 26th to 28th March 2012. The aim of the conference is to bring together people who are already working in the field and showcase opportunities in neuroinformatics to people working in related disciplines.
The conference will have:
- An array of international speakers
- Posters and Demonstrations including Poster Spotlights
- Stimulating contributed sessions from UK people working in neuroinformatics
- Update from our Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
- Conference Dinner in the Playfair Building at Surgeons Hall including private tour of the Museum
- Discussions on the future of the UK Node

Confirmed speakers so far are:
Gaute Einevoll, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway
Simon Laughlin, Cambridge University, UK
Read Montague, Virginia Tech Carilion, USA
Simon Schultz, Imperial College London, UK

REGISTRATION
Cost of the congress is £75.00 and students will be re-imbursed after the event if they present a poster or demonstration.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬
Contributed talks, poster and demonstration sessions. Submissions for these are OPEN now.
Potential submissions should describe a work or research project that would be of interest to our audience of researchers including graduate students, faculty and industrial/commercial participants. The purpose of the talk/poster/demonstration might be to inform colleagues of the development and implementation of a project, share techniques for research or practice or present results in advance of publication for peer reviewed journals.
All submissions can be entered on the registration form.

CONTRIBUTED TALKS
Talks will be 20mins long with an additional 5mins period between talks allows for questions, discussion, and introduction of the next speaker.
Proposals should be no more than 2pages (including bibliography). They will be judged on their promise of leading to an exciting or provocative talk.
If there are not enough time slots available for every one who wishes to give a contributed talk, the Committee may ask some authors to present their work as a poster or demonstration.
Deadline: 17/2/12

POSTERS and DEMONSTRATIONS
Poster and demonstration proposals should be no more than 300 words including title.
Those wanting to present a demonstration should bring their own PC/Laptop and cables.
Deadline: 24/2/12
¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

If you have any questions or queries regarding the Congress, or the UK NI Node, please do get in touch.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best wishes
Ewa

Mrs Ewa Maria Hill (nee Henderson)
UK Neuroinformatics Node Administrator and PA to Professor David Willshaw
University of Edinburgh - School of Informatics
10 Crichton Street - Informatics Forum, Room 2.34,
EDINBURGH EH8 9AB
T +44(0)131 6503100 | E ewa.hill@ed.ac.uk | W www.neuroinformatics.org.uk

--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

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